The Girl in the Bookshop
by AuroraLamia
Summary: Diana works specifically for the children at St. Mungo's. When everything goes down hill with a heavily pregnant Ginny, Draco and Hermione's illegitimate child and Harry's affair, all Diana wishes for is that she asked out the girl from Flourish & Blotts.


I work as a Children's Healer at St. Mungo's. It's extremely difficult at times but no more then an embarrassed adult who doesn't want to tell you what happened. I've always known that I would be a healer. I've known ever since I was little, and...

I was alone most of the time as a kid. Children came and went but no one stayed like I did. The ones that did...well, they were only there for a year or two usually before it happens.

The nights were cold and in those nights, I would cry into my pillow. Sometimes a healer would come by for a check-up, but I'd lived at the hospital for a few years, coming and going with the illness I had. They grew used to me. Some of them tolerated me, others would treat me like their friends...momentarily.

The disease is gone now, I got healthy enough in time for me to go to Hogwarts. I had to have shots everyday at the Hospital wing for the first two years and twice I had a relapse where I couldn't leave the wing for a month. I studied hard, especially in those times. It's all I wanted to do. I got the marks, sometimes at the cost of a few friends. Some of them stuck by me, like Mark and Thea. Their wedding's next week.

Their parents are so proud of them.

My parents love me, but me going in and our of hospital as a kid killed a part of them. I think me going to Hogwarts gave a small part of that back, but I don't think you can ever fix something that's broken like that. Seeing your child in and out of the hospital, sad all the time. Not that I was always sad, I had some great fun too, but I want the kids here to have more fun, which is why I wanted to be a healer. I wanted children's long stays and...last days to be happy. I want more smiles and giggles to echo through the wards and halls. I want people to cry less.

I cried too much, but it did teach me to be strong.

"Diana?" I turn around and smile when I see Claude. Claude's my superior, he's the one that gives all of us the ok to experiment with spells and potions for the children after severe testing. He's a happily married man who's son now works in Romania with dragons. I think his son's name is Gilbert or something. "Di?"

"Sir?" I ask.

"Hey, good you are awake." I give a small chuckle at that, "Have you checked up on Matthew?" He asks as he looks over his paperwork, squinting over his glasses to see the words. My face falls and when Claude looks up at my silence, he immediately knows, "What happened?" I watch him place the clipboard of papers down onto the bench before I take a breath and begin.

"Last night the potion got into his liver, we tried everything but we didn't know what to do without knowing what the potion was. Melinda opened him up to give him the last chane we could, but everything just went down hill from there. We tried sir, but it wasn't enough." Something squeezed inside of me at remembering.

"What's going on - Jenkins!"

"Here Ma'am, here's the-"

"We can't use that. We'll have to open him up."

"Open him up?" I shout, "That's so muggle! Ma'am that has to be a better option." The woman turns around and glares.

"Do you have one? Because this boy is dying!" My eyes look at Matthew as seizures take him. His eyes roll up and my heart thumps loudly in my chest. Two other healer's run around, administering a sleeping drought. He's just a boy, I was to tell them. He wants to go to Hogwarts in four years. His mother works at the ministry, his father's teaching him Quidditch.

"Jenkins!" I look up at her. "We need to open him up."

"He's not going to make it," I whisper as I pull out my wand.

"This will at least give him a chance."

I'm exhausted, and losing Matt had taken every last bit of energy I've had. There's too much of a shortage of Healer's here. I grab the coffee Claude holds out to me, and take a sip. "Thank you," I murmur.

"It's a tough job."

"Yes." I breathe in the coffee before placing it back down. "I should go home," I yawn, "I've been here for seventy-two hours checking on every body and trying to-"

Claude grabs me by my arm, reaches into my sleeve and pulls out my wand. "Go home Jenkins," he says with a small smile. "Tired healer's get more people hurt then cured." I nod slowly. His words suddenly made me realise just how exhausted I feel. I'm so tired that can sleep on the floor comfortably. "Glad someone around here isn't taking potions for instant energy boosts. Those things can go nasty if you keep taking them."

"Not me sir," I mutter, "caffeine and food keeps me awake. And loud children," I joke. He gives me a small smile before picking up the paperwork again.

I walk down to the ground floor for my last check up. Sitting in her bed is Melody Cane with a teddy in her arms. "Hello Melody," I say sitting down at the end of her bed as I read over her stats. "Haven't been playing with your parent's wand I hope." She grins at me and shakes her head. Her piggy-tails I tied earlier, bump left and right. "They'll be here to visit in the next hour, won't they?"

She nods again.

Whatever Melody did with her parent's wand caused her vocal folds to become damaged, resulting in her becoming a mute. The girl didn't take it very well for the first few weeks, but she's getting there. Every now and again I see her crying with her parents, but I'm trying. Trying to think of something that could reverse it. They've given me a week before she has to go home, after that they're going to try alternative methods. I'm trying, I really am.

Melody reaches under her pillow and pulls out a drawing. "What's this?" I ask. She places it in my hand and I open it up. There's a blue and orange crayon drawing of her holding onto my stick figure hand, there's a sun in the corner and flowers blooming at our feet. I look up and smile. "This is beautiful," I tell her, "Are you going to be an artist when you're older?" She stops and thinks for a moment before shaking her head no. "Well, thank you." I give her one last smile.

She grabs my hand as I get up to leave and I look down at her sadly. In her eyes, she pleads for me to stay. I would love to, I want to say to her. I would love to be here for you when you're parents are unable to. I would love to help you draw and make you smile. I would love to know how to fix you.

"I have to go home," I tell her. Slowly, she lets go of my hand, her face falls sadly and she tucks her hands around the brown teddy bear besides her. "I'll be back tonight though, and I promise to visit ok?" She smiles and nods, but her smile's too tight to be natural, and her eyes are too watery. I sigh again, feeling my heart hurt from leaving her in such a state. But I have to leave, if I go home, I can go through my books again and try and figure out how to fix the damage done.

I walk out of the room with a last look at her, with the picture still in my hand. She looks so bored. Majority of the kids do when they stay here. There's not much you can do. I fold up the picture and place it in one of my pockets on my white robes. I want to do something for her and the other kids, maybe...maybe I'll buy some books for them. Something to share around and keep them interested at least for a little while.

"No!" I turn around sharply. "No!" A child's voice screams again. Disregarding my plans completely, I half run over to where the child is. "No!" The little boy bellows again.

"James Sirius Potter, you stop that right now or so help me!"

I walk over to the heavily pregnant woman. Her flaming red hair, and what she called her son gave away who she is. "Mrs Potter!" I say with a smile, "May I ask what the problem is?" She gives an exasperated sigh and leans onto the receptionist table as she holds onto her large stomach. Any day, I quickly calculate, she's definitely at the end.

"James," she gives a glare directed towards her son, "drank a potion and won't tell me what it was." My stomach drops at remembering Matthew, but I hold my face steady.

"I'll take a look."

"No!" James, only three years old, glares up at me and folds his arms tight across his body as his face goes red.

"James if you don't go with the nice woman, so help me, I'll give all of your toys to Albus!" James goes even redder before he storms off with me. Slowly Ginny pushes off the wall and waddles behind her son.

"Swollen feet?" I say, looking at her shoes which appear to be her husbands by the size. Ginny grumbles about it before giving me a small smile.

"Sorry about this," she replies, "We don't carry any potions in reach of the children usually, but somehow..." she mutters, "and Harry knows to label them!" She groans as the baby gives a sharp kick.

"Mrs Potter, why don't you sit down, I'll take care of your son and give him back to you as fast as I can." She gives another sigh, dropping her shoulders, before nodding and walking over to one of the chairs in the waiting room. I give a sharp nod to Cecelia who briskly walks over and immediately asks if Ginny wants anything.

Looking at Ginny as I lead her son away, I remember that I had been in the year below Ginny but I haven't seen her since the year before the battle happened. My parents and I left for Europe that year and we didn't return until the year after.

I lost Dana in that battle.

"I don't wanna!" I look down at James and calmly seat him on the long table. as he struggles and twist and turns in my grasp.

"What's wrong?" I ask as I kneel down in front of him. He hits my head with a balled up hand and I frown at him. "James, look at me," I continue on calmly. Defiantly, he shuts his eyes and screws up his face so he can't see me. I sigh and rub my head where he hit me. "James, would you like a chocolate frog?" His eyes open.

"Yes," he says eagerly.

"I'll give you one if you're good." He stops and thinks over this and I calmly wait for him as I step back and grab my wand. James then turns to me, and with wide green eyes, gives a sharp nod. "You're going to be a good young man if you continue to bargain so well," I joke. He grins and allows me to step closer.

"I didn't mean to," he suddenly says.

"What didn't you mean to?"

"Swallow the potion, I thought it was a candy drink but then Mum got all mad and now Dad's gonna get in biiiig trouble."

I give a small laugh and tell him to stretch out his arms as I mutter a quick spell on both. The arms give a small green glow. That's good. "I'm sure everything will be fine once we find out what the potion was. Now, can you remember what colour it was?" I tap his knees and they both give a small green glow as well. Also good.

"Umm...It was a yucky colour, like...it was like your hair if it had mud in it." I blink and touch my blonde hair. Sighing, I shrug off the comment before placing a smile back on.

"What did it taste like?" I tap his stomach. A blue glow. My lips twist before I scratch my head nervously. Blue means that he shouldn't of had it, but it's not doing any damage yet. It might give him a fever or diarrhea though, or it hasn't become active yet. The latter is unlikely, but it's still been known to happen.

"Umm it tasted like pancakes my mum makes." I nod and tap his torso. Blue again. Is it in his lungs? That's not good. I give a sigh. It might be nothing but I won't let him go home. "Miss?"

"Call me Diana," I smile at him before I try and flatten his hair, to no avail. I try another spell and tap the top of his head. He shivers and I frown. No results. "Well that's annoying," I mutter.

"Diana," he rolls the word on his mouth before smiling, "will I be ok?"

"Well, I'll tell you what. You can have your chocolate frog now." I reach into my pocket and pull it out, handing it over to him, "but you have to stay here for a while just to make sure everything's going to be fine. We might call your dad and see what that potion was if that's ok with you?" He nods as he chews on the chocolate, somehow already managing to get it all over his face with the first few bites. As I straighten back up, he jumps off the table and follows me back to his mother.

"Is he ok?" She asks. Worry fills her eyes. I take in a small breath and keep a straight, professional face.

"I want to keep him overnight for observation. I couldn't see anything dangerous but I would prefer to be safe." Ginny runs her fingers through her hair before nodding. "You wouldn't happen to be able to have your husband come here, would you? Just so we can see what the potion is and fill out some minor paperwork." She nods again and tries to stand up. Seeing her struggle I quickly help her to stand.

Behind me, James run the back of his over his face as he stares at the card from the packet. "Mum, I got dad again!" He huffs.

"Do you have some paper?" Ginny asks, petting her son's head. Cecelia, who is sitting behind the receptionist desk, suddenly jumps up with some paper and walks over with a quill and ink in hand.

"I'll write it for you if you want, you can go with Jenkins to have your son settled in if you'd prefer."

"That'd be lovely, he works-"

Cecelia grins, "I know where he works Mrs Potter, there aren't many people who don't." Ginny laughs before groaning as the baby gives another sharp kick.

"Can't wait for this one to be born. This is the last kid I'm having," she mutters.

James throws the card away in boredom and I quickly pick it up. "You don't want the card James?" I ask. James crosses his arms again. "Can I have it then?" James nods and I place the card in my pocket. Truth be told, I owned two other Harry's, but I didn't want him to litter. Also, I knew that other kids collected cards in here. "Come on, we'll have to go to the third floor."

"Will you be my healer?" James asks.

"I'll talk to my boss and see if I can make some special arrangements," I wink at him.


End file.
